Brian and creationism (Blogathon 26/49)

I’m back! I just got done recording songs people had requested…with the flu. Ah well, it’s like my old voice teacher always said: you have a career because you can sing when sick.

This may explain why I don’t have a career…

Anyway. A while back I wrote a post about a creationist website that lamented that the book of Genesis (the one that says birds came before whales or insects before plants) is not being treated as history in public schools.

Brian was displeased with me.

It’s funny that you claim the ideas found on the website are silly and that each h of you are way to smart to believe in such nonsense; yet for some reason you cannot give a credible argument to refute the claims. Instead you make childish remarks that show both your immaturity and lack of knowledge…when in doubt you call names and cite foolishness. Win the argument with science or go back to playing video games. There’s actually alot of proof for this argument for the Creationist account and it raises questions that you Darwinists will not answer, because your model fails. So keep up the cover-up, maybe no one else will notice what you’re doing…as for me, I like to think for myself, instead of believing what the “people of authority” tell me to believe. I have found enough holes in their arguments and have come to witness that some of the smartest people can be morons too. But again, I suggest you either tackle the difficult issues we all face with our history with at least an ounce of intelligent thought instead of the simpleton antics you have demonstrated.

…you claim the ideas found on the website are silly and that each h of you are way to smart to believe in such nonsense

I did say they’re silly. They are. Insects didn’t come before plants.

And yes, I am too smart to believe those things. It’s a very low bar, so I don’t expect anybody to be too impressed.

As far as refuting the sciency-sounding stuff, I don’t have to. That’s the work of scientists. The problem is that the people posting stuff to this website aren’t presenting it to scientists. They’re putting it on a web page where there is no penalty for being full of shit (in this way it differs from scientific literature).

Their target is not the people who know anything about science but rather people who don’t: waiters, musicians, etc. People who simply don’t have that expertise and whose last contact with biology was probably in high school. Why tell the people who know little about the subject comparatively as if they are the arbiters of whether or not it’s good science?

This should tell you something about how they operate. It should also tell you what they think of you.

Instead you make childish remarks that show both your immaturity and lack of knowledge

I made jokes about how the people buying that bullshit must think, and they’re accurate. You defer to the conclusions of scientists all the time, yet when it comes to evolution you scoff. Do you think you know better than the experts? Do you think science is some anti-god conspiracy? Either of these positions makes you unfathomably arrogant, which looks hilarious juxtaposed against how ridiculously stupid they make you look.

Win the argument with science or go back to playing video games.

What’s wrong with video games?

The argument has been won. That’s the whole point of the post. The scientific consensus says one thing, creationists say the other. If creationism had won the argument we’d see papers published on it, we’d see it taught in schools. We’ve seen neither.

You really think my ignorance of science (though, I count myself a fairly well-informed layman) gives any credibility to the people operating that website? It doesn’t. The responsibility of the sites operators is to convince the scientists, not music majors like me. It’s a responsibility they have not even tried to meet.

There’s actually alot of proof for this argument for the Creationist account and it raises questions that you Darwinists will not answer, because your model fails.

This is news to scientists. Perhaps you know better than they do. What do you do for a living? Probably not design video games, I imagine.

So keep up the cover-up, maybe no one else will notice what you’re doing

Having a public blog is a pretty shitty way to keep a cover up.

…as for me, I like to think for myself, instead of believing what the “people of authority” tell me to believe

Yeah, what do the experts know? I imagine you like to think for yourself so much that you walk instead of fly because, physicists, who are they to tell you the best ways to travel?

One time I decided I was going to think for myself in the same vein as you. Unfortunately, I decided to do this in the doctor’s office when I had a suddenly developing/spreading rash. I thought it was from too much Chinese food and immediately stopped eating General Tso’s chicken.

The expert, however, said it was some kind of fungus. I told her she was wrong because fungus grows in the ground and I think for myself. She told me I was an idiot. Now it hurts when I pee. I think that’s from exercising too much.

Some people have concluded that thinking for themselves mean trusting the consensus of those who have devoted their lives to the study of a subject over their own uninformed opinion is probably the way to go. In the case of people trusting the opinions of ancient sheep herders who didn’t know enough to wash their hands after wiping their asses as those opinions are enshrined in a book, over the conclusions of modern experts, I find “thinking for themselves” is a euphemism for pursuing a state of being “dumb as shit”. This is usually called faith.

More on Brian later.

This is post 21 of 49 for Blogathon.

Total donors is at 245 (if we hit 300 by 7am tomorrow, even if those donations are just the $5 minimum, 20 campers at Camp Quest Ohio will get to pie Michaelyn or JT in the face)! There will be pictures. That link also has some other ideas for pledging for Blogathon.

When not defending the planet from inevitable apocalypse at the rotting hands of the undead, JT is a writer and public speaker about atheism, gay rights, and more. He spent two and a half years with the Secular Student Alliance as their first high school organizer. During that time he built the SSA’s high school program and oversaw the development of groups nationwide. JT is also the co-founder of the popular Skepticon conference and served as the events lead organizer during its first three years.

http://www.atheist-faq.com Jasper of Maine

…as for me, I like to think for myself, instead of believing what the “people of authority” tell me to believe

It’s called specialization. People get good at what they focus on for careers.

JJ7212

You know, it all comes down to trust. So much conflicting information. Who should ya’ trust? It’s all about credibility and integrity. Of course scientists are very credible, but so are our families, who just so happen to be mostly christian. That’s half the problem. It seems almost ridiculous that if you come from a christian family, you have to have some strong moral courage and a mature character just to openly say that you trust science! To put some spin on a popular church saying… ‘You can lead a christian to reason, but you can’t make him think!’ As long as we continue to fight to make it more socially acceptable to be an atheist and to trust the credibility of our sciences, reasonable arguments against religion will become more widely discussed in our daily lives. It seems to be the end result that we most commonly want. Education. And science is just way more interesting than any biblical fairy tale story!

liam

Go back to playing video games?! I resent the implication that JT even bothered to stop playing video games in order to address this guy!

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